My 2 Cents

Friday, September 30, 2011

If you consider yourself American, you can be a white American or a black American, or any flavor of skin color in between. Likewise if you consider yourself Hispanic, you can be a white Hispanic, or a black Hispanic or any in between.

Hispanic only means that you identify your origins as having come from a Latin American country.

Now, the feeling of inferiority that gurudev16 talks about, has nothing to do with skin color and more to do with economics. If you make good money you don't feel inferior. You are doing well and enjoying life. Instead you feel pitty for all the poor folk around you that aren't as enlightened as you are, whether they be white, black, brown or any other physical trait one cares to assign to people.

So I agree, lets get over the whole skin color classification and focus on economic and educational distinctions and values. Our nation is becoming poorer, not because we are less white, but because we are less smart.

I'm a computer scientist, I write programs for a living, my salary is very high, and in my department there is only one American white person because he was smart enough to go into a technical field and not lure himself into a business degree with false hopes of making it big on wall street. The rest in my department are Hispanic and Indian because there weren't any other qualified candidates available.

Friday, August 26, 2011

We have a problem today with our democratic system. It seems that elections now go to the folks who can scream the loudest and say the most outrageous things, and then of course there is the issue of money. Those with the most money, have the most "Free Speech" and does with less money, they usually lose.

Our constitution provides for free speech, yet to reach millions of people you need millions of dollars. If you do not have millions of dollars, you do not have free speech. Yes It is possible to post a video on YouTube, or hope to get air time from the media, those are usually free (unless you pay for prime spots, key words, search results, etc.). And again we are going back to how money is influencing politics. This of course is a shame, good ideas should be influencing politics not money.

So I have a simple solution. Politicians complain when you try to curb how much money they can raise and spend on a campaign. They usually site an infringement on their free speech rights when you try to prevent how much money they raise, and usually win in court. So I say remove all restrictions on how much money can be raised by politicians. Even remove the personal contribution limit. And create one new law, a law that states that any politician who buys an ad, airs a message, rents a space for a speech, must also buy an equal amount of the same for their opponent to get their message out.

This way people always hear both sides of the message, there is no infringement on free speech, instead there is really some free speech, and people get to choose based on the best idea, not the person who has the most money.

Monday, February 22, 2010

First off let me say that I have been a supporter of you and the Democrats in Massachusetts.

I am writing in regards to the use of the Filibuster rule by the Republican Party in the Senate. I understand that this is a procedural rule, and what it means is that 60 votes are needed to end debate so that a vote on a bill can occur.

However, if we read the constitution, it clearly states that only a simple majority is needed to pass a bill, in our current demographic that means 50 votes plus 1, that one which could be cast by the Vice President.

Its quite simply "political voodoo " to use the filibuster to continue debate indefinitely, in order to prevent a vote from happening and prevent a bill from passing. And quite frankly I believe it to be unconstitutional.

So my ultimatum to you and the rest of the democrats in the senate is to either get rid of the filibuster or literally make the senate republicans debate forever or hold an up or down vote on the bill.

If neither of these things happens, I do not see how I can continue to support our current political system and I will use my vote and support for those candidates that are serious about reform and belong to neither of the current political parties.

I clearly remember the up or down ranting of the Republican party when the Democrats wanted to use the filibuster rule to stop a vote, and I clearly remember Republicans using reconciliation to pass major bills. While our government is mired in these silly debates because of not having 60 votes to proceed to vote on a bill (effectively requiring 60 votes to pass a bill, which is against the constitution) other countries are moving ahead with their agendas, and in the long run our country will suffer for it because we will be left stagnant with our policies and not be the catalyst for change that we need to be in order to survive in our global markets.

Please look into ending the filibuster, and lets govern this country as it was intended in our constitution.

Monday, January 18, 2010

Last night, starting at about 10pm I starting getting birthday wishes from all of my friends and family. As the night and day went by my phone kept getting all the email notifications of messages and emails coming from all of you.

Those of you that know me well, know that this year just past was probably one of the most challenging years of my life, but it was also a year of many rewards and achievements. And to have spent the day receiving messages from everyone no matter where I was made it something truly special.

I haven't really had a birthday party with cakes and balloons in the last couple of years, but this year my five year old daughter insisted I come home early, go straight to my room (and stay there) while she and my mom set up dinner, balloons, cake and gifts. She then came up and gave me permission to leave my room and "surprised" me for my birthday. It was something very small, but you don't need a grand ball of a party to know that people care about you.

Having received all the birthday wishes from all of you was the icing on the cake, I couldn't have asked for anything more this Birthday.

(( Well... maybe a thing or two more, but those will come with time ;) ))

This past Saturday I spent the day with staff and alumni from Massachusetts HOBY in Millis, and I heard a speaker there say this "The pain of regret is greater than the pain of rejection". In thinking about that, I took it a step further and interpreted it as follows:

I turned 28 today and there are still many things that I want to try in my life. I will not let the fear of failure or rejection stop me. I will live my life until the day I die. And if I can give anyone anything today, then let it be this: "Don't be afraid of what could happen if you do, instead you should be afraid of what will happen if you don't".

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Men are often seen as shallow, only wanting to date a woman for her physical appeal instead of the merrits and integrity of her character. Yet, in my opinion it is not only men whom are guilty of being superficial, but women as well.

I want to take as an example the following: A few weeks ago I met a friend's date who stated that she has friends that will only date a guy if he makes $100K+ aka only guys that have money1. Now since everyone has a right to set their standards, I want to set equally as demanding standards for that type of a girl.

That girl better be cute and sex better be good. Just as she would only continue to go out with the guy so long as he has money, expect that the guy will only continue to go out with her so long as she looks cute. Meaning if she gains weight because of not working out or taking care of herself, she will be out of the picture.

She should not expect marriage, because that would only unfairly give her some of the guy's money once he left her. For we know that as the guy gets older he may make more and more money, but as the girl gets older she will at some point start to look less and less cute. And looking less cute means that she will be out of the picture.

To put it diplomatically, if you make a blanket statement such as "I will only date guys who make $100K+ a year", then you are only a girl that money can buy. And as such that is exactly how you can expect to be treated.

Now a more reasonable request, is to say I want to be with someone who has good prospects, a college degree, a good head on their shoulders, a decent job, has their act together and in the future has the potential to be better off than they are today. Someone I can sit down with and have a decent conversation I can enjoy. And then that person will have the right to ask what do you have to offer to the relationship? Are you college educated? Can you hold your own in an intelligent conversation?

We each have our standards of what we want an ideal boyfriend / girlfriend to look like and be like, there is nothing wrong with that, but if all you can think about are material and physical appeal you are truly setting yourself up for failure because anyone can loose their appeal and then what will you be left with? I can tell you one thing for sure, it wont be happiness.

1 :Statistically speaking, only about 6% of the entire US populationindividually earn over $100K (go to wikipedia.org and look up census personal income in the U.S.).

Friday, August 15, 2008

This short video clip is of a Colmado or better known as a "Colmadon" in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

The idea is that your local grocery store by day, can also be your local hang out spot by night. In the last few years "Colmadones" (plural in spanish for Colmadon)" have flourished in Santo Domingo and to an ever greater extent The Dominican Republic as a whole.

The laws are a little bit more relaxed, depending on what part of the country you are in, when it comes to loud music being plaid at night in a residential area. The only limitation is that during the week establishments must close by Midnight, and on weekends (Friday night and Saturday Night) they must close by 2am.

What makes these establishments so successful is that you get regular grocery or liquor store prices while enjoying the local night life. Additionally you don't have to travel far from your home to have a drink and be social with your friends. It is interesting to see how in other countries with much more lax drinking laws than the U.S. there are also fewer alcohol related deaths per capita.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

An immigration I-130 petition, is a petition filed by a U.S. Citizen or U.S. Legal Permanent Resident (LPR) requesting that a family member born and living outside of the U.S. be granted the appropriate legal status to immigrate to the U.S.

Currently, a petition filed by an LPR can be delayed up to five years due to the limit on the number of VISAs the U.S. State Department issues each year. In a Washington Post article it was estimated that immigrants send about $30 billion USD annually to their family members in Latin America. Further, it is estimated that roughly $4.2 billion USD annually goes to support the immediate families of LPRs awaiting the legal status to immigrate to the U.S. In addition to this, and what is not mentioned in any of the estimates, is how much money is spent traveling abroad to visit relatives. It would not be surprising if the actual amount being sent / spent abroad is closer to $5-6 billion USD annually.

With all the talk of the value of the family unit in the United States, it is surprising to note that Legal Permanent Residents are being separated for up to 5 years (11 years in some cases) from their children and/or spouses. This creates an undue burden on people who are actually following the law and trying to do things legally. Its not even possible for an LPR to go and live with their family members while the case is pending because they may loose their legal permanent status if they remain outside the U.S. for longer than 6 months.

The cost of these delays are an unstable individual due to family separation, money in the billions being sent abroad to support family members, and illegal immigration by individuals who don't have the patience to wait 5 or more years for legal status. From a purely economical standpoint, it also makes sense to try and regain into the U.S. economy some of the money being sent abroad. Money that could go to paying for food, housing, schooling, clothing and a variety of goods and services it takes to raise a family in the U.S.

The benefits of these delays, if any, go to the people who are against immigration, even legal immigration. Which is a sad story in the United States, a country founded entirely by immigrants seeking to have a better life. To quote an article by Ken McLaughlin of mercurynews.com "Families shouldn't be held hostage and used as pawns in the bigger game of immigration reform... Even in the Mafia they have rules against going after the women and children."